Billy Harper Quintet “81st Birthday Celebration”

*PLEASE NOTE: All 7PM and 9PM shows at Smoke are Dinner Shows Freddie Hendrix – trumpet Billy Harper – tenor saxophone Francesca Tanksley – piano Dezron Douglas – bass Aaron Scott – drums “A luminary figure in post-bop” – The New York Times The incredible Billy Harper leads his celebrated quintet—with trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, pianist Francesca Tanksley, bassist Dezron Douglas, and drummer Aaron Scott—while celebrating his 81st birthday. One of the most original and significant saxophonists of the past 50 years, Harper has a distinctive sound and approach that is purely his own. Over the years, he’s worked with Art Blakey, Max Roach, Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Lee Morgan, and, most recently, the Cookers. The San Francisco Chronicle says, “he is a soul of sensitivity and intelligence, as well as of explosive, majestic passion.” “His viscous, chocolaty tone and depth-charge bursts from the bottom of his range [are] a stark contrast to the current trend for a post-bop homogeneity of tone in the newer generation of saxophone sounds,” reports JazzWise.